The Unbearable Elevator Incident
by JennaTalbot
Summary: Marinette is claustrophobic and Adrien channels his inner Chat in order to cheer her up (I apologize in advance here have some puns)


"Oh no no no no!" The blue-eyed girl put her hands over her eyes as the elevator suddenly stopped.

"Hey, it's gonna be fine," the blonde boy laid his hand gently on her arm. Instead of the reassuring gesture he hoped for, the girl leapt about a foot in the air. He retracted his arm quickly, apologizing.

"I, no, um… it's just I- small spaces," she managed to squeak out.

Adrien backed up, wanting to give her as much space in the elevator as possible, glancing nervously at the ceiling. "It's ok Marinette, I'm sure it's just a minor thing, we'll be moving again soon."

Marinette gulped but remained silent, her hands still over her eyes.

"Hey, did I ever tell you about the time that I got kicked out of the zoo?"

The girl lowered her hands a bit to look at him skeptically. " _You_ got kicked out of a zoo?"

Adrien chuckled and slid down the wall into a sitting position, motioning at the ground next to him. He wasn't much for talking or sharing personal stories, but he thought the girl could use a distraction, and he was happy to provide that for her. Marinette slowly sank down next to him. He could see she was shaking a bit. Adrien had never pegged her as claustrophobic, but then again, there was a lot he didn't know about Marinette.

He shook his head to focus back on his story.

"Yeah… so I think I was… nine or ten maybe? And my mother decided to take Chloe and I to the zoo," Adrien smiled. "Anyways, it started out as a great day. It was warm and sunny, and Chloe and I were trying to decide what our favorite animals were. She liked the lions- the prettiest kitties she called them. I decided that I really liked the otters, they were so playful," he grinned at the memory. "But yeah, Chloe and I got in an argument about which animal was better. If I remember correctly, it got pretty heated," he shook his head. "She told me I had no taste or sense of royalty or something like that and I told her that she was no fun because all the lions did was lay there and yawn once or twice. My mother was probably regretting what she got herself into at that point. But we continued on through the exhibits, and finally we came to the Arctic exhibits. Um well… ok so before you judge… I'd never been to a zoo before right? So I didn't have any way to know…"

Marinette made an impatient noise. "Adrien! What did you do?"

He blushed and looked away. He hadn't realized that Marinette had been staring at him the entire time he'd been talking.

"Ok well Chloe made some comment about how the polar bears must be hot, since it was a warm summer day, and even then we knew enough to know that they live in the snow. And well, the more I was thinking about it, the worse I felt for the bears. The area with the covered tunnels where the seals were at was so much colder than the outside! And then Chloe dropped her ice cream and started throwing a fit, so my mother was dealing with that," he smirked, "so I was just left wandering around by myself. After a few minutes, I noticed a staff member leaving through a side door, but it didn't shut all the way. I went over intending to close it, but decided I wanted to know what was inside. Curiosity killed the cat and all that. And… that's the story of how I accidentally let a polar bear lose in the Zoologique de Paris. And possibly got someone fired for not closing the enclosure properly." He finished, rubbing the back of his neck. He froze once he realized what he had said.

Marinette was staring at him, wide eyed. "You didn't," she accused. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have noticed anything strange about his wordplay.

"Oh believe me, I did," Adrien laughed, partly in amusement and partly in relief.

"Oh my god!" Marinette exclaimed. "You let a freaking _polar bear_ lose in a zoo in the middle of Paris? Good thing Ladybug and Chat Noir don't have to worry about you doing that now," she grinned.

Adrien grinned back. He could use this to his advantage. "Chat Noir probably would have found it pawsitively _un-bear-able_!"

Marinette groaned and leaned her head back against the elevator wall. "You didn't."

"Oh but I did," he winked at her, repeating their earlier sentiments. As she groaned again he continued, "C'mon Marinette, I'm _bear-ing_ some of my biggest secrets for you! I can _bear-ly_ believe I told you that story!"

Marinette dissolved into a fit of giggles as Adrien rattled off puns, waggling his eyebrows while he did so. He was completely willing to make a fool of himself if it made Marinette feel better.

"Just _bear_ with me a little long-"

Adrien's last pun was interrupted by a mechanic whir and the elevator jolting back into motion.

"Well what do you know! I hate to be the _bear-er_ of bad news, but it looks like it's time to regain our _bear-ings_ and reenter the real world."

Marinette swatted at Adrien's shoulder as he helped her back to her feet. The elevator doors opened and she rushed out, grateful to no longer be trapped. She turned back to Adrien and gave him a shy smile.

"Thanks to you, I _bear-ly_ noticed where we were," she said quietly, before turning to run off.

Adrien stood, watching her leave with a grin on his face, until the elevator doors closed on him.


End file.
